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shadow, of too rare occurrence in nature to be readily recog nised by common observers.

brother artist, which, as the pamphlet in question is little likely to come into the hands of the generality of our readers, we here subjoin. We believe that we may add, sketches, and which in them were one source of that interest "The multiplicity of objects which he introduced in his without violating any wish on the part of the author to they possessed, would have required all the advantages of a remain unknown, that the quotation we are about to skilful generalization to fit them for appearing with advan make is from the pen of the Rev. Mr Thomson of Dud-tage in a regular picture. In his efforts to do justice to the dingstone--than whom we know no person better enti- parts, the effect of the composition as a whole was often suftled to be heard on such a subject: fered to assume too complex an aspect to be easily taken in by the eye at once. But, with all the disadvantages which his pictures the praise of high poetical and romantic feelaccompanies this defect, it is impossible to withhold from

formly possess elevation of sentiment far above ordinary apPearances and ordinary incidents. They may fail to invite that redundancy of matter which interferes with general a particular scrutiny, but they will never fail to reward it: simplicity, when carefully and separately viewed, becomes food for curiosity, and an incentive to closer investigation. * The paintings by Schetky in the present Exhibition are three in number-one in oils, and two in water-colours all of them full of the peculiarities of his genius. They

"Mr Schetky, as a landscape-painter, was distinguished by a style which seemed to borrow little from that of any other master; and to a decided character of originality, it united ample evidence of an inventive, romantic, and poeti-ing, and exquisite detail in the various parts. They unical imagination. The subjects of wild grandeur which he often represented, made up of an endless variety of objects and of incidents, if they exhibit not the pleasing and popular charms of harmony and repose, possess, in an eminent degree, those rarer qualities which are calculated to excite and surprise. It is no uncommon occurrence to meet with pictures which please by their general effect, but which fail to sustain protracted interest, by reason of their barrenness in respect of matter and episode. The reverse of this is the character of Mr Schetky's style. But if it be thus charge-are for sale, and worthy the attention of amateurs. able with some deficiency in the external graces which recommend on a first introduction, this is compensated by the inexhaustible treasures of information, and the sallies of a vigorous and playful fancy, which pour forth on more intimate acquaintance.

"The time which could be spared from professional duties, when in the Peninsula, Mr Schetky devoted to the delineation of those romantic scenes of grandeur with which the mountainous districts abound. Amongst these his fervent genius found its natural food; and his taste acquired a corresponding and permanent cast. He generally selected those wide and far-extended prospects which are seldom to be commanded but from an elevated point of view; and he endeavoured not only to preserve the general character, but also to detail, with elaborate precision, the various subordinate features of his subject. Accordingly, his pencil-drawings done on the spot are so strongly marked by this peculiarity, that they consist not of a few sentences or passages of nature, but may rather be compared to ample volumes, each filled with curious, interesting, and condensed narration.

"There is, perhaps, nothing which addresses itself to the eye or the imagination with a more fascinating influence, than the mysterious objects which bound the remote distance of a grand and far-extended scene. Among these delightful regions the poetical fancy of our lamented friend seemed to dwell with peculiar fondness; and in many of those beautiful transcripts which he has left in mere outline, there is much to awaken that class of peculiar emotions, which, in every susceptible mind, is so forcibly excited by the happy vision of corresponding realities in nature. The successful execution of such undertakings necessarily requires a clearness and flexibility of line which few have patience to acquire, and still fewer to practise. Whatever Mr Schetky meant to express, was always expressed with decided character, and free from ambiguity. Besides his distant mountains his vast interminable forests receding from the eye, amidst the windings of the valley, or climbing the sides of the nearer hills-his precipices adorned by the picturesque Moorish towers and castles, with the beautiful accompaniments of falling waters, and all the variety of objects which supplied the materials of his compositions-all are delineated with so much delicacy, discrimination, and spirit, that he who examines with an eye of intelligence the mere outlines of such scenes, will often experience a gratification which may be sought for in vain in highly finished pictures. "Of these masterly designs, as filled up by the hand of their author, the public have had an opportunity of judging from the pictures and water-colour drawings which, from time to time, Mr Schetky contributed to the Exhibition of the Royal Academy of London. In these it is natural to look for a fuller development of power, as comprehending chiaroscuro and colouring. The same set of objects in nature may appear under a thousand various effects. In the vast latitude thus authorized by nature, it becomes the province of judgment and right taste to select, out of the many, the one which is best suited to the character of the scene. And here, while an ambition of originality, and love of what is daring, and out of the common track, has often betrayed great minds into error, and led them to offer representations contradictory to the possibilities of nature-it will be admitted, that the error of Mr Schetky's style rather consisted in making choice of effects and accidents, of light and

As

the lovers of art may entertain a laudable curiosity to know the fate of Schetky's works, we add, for their information, that his collection of sketches was purchased by Lawrence, and are now about to be exposed for sale by Mr Christie; his surgical drawings, which are also valuable when viewed as mere works of art, are partly in the possession of Dr John Thomson of this city-partly deposited in the Museum of Chatham;-two fine pictures by him are in the possession of Dr Maclagan, his friend and biographer;-one belongs to David Bridges, Esq., and some more are the property of his sister.

It only remains for us to observe, before taking our leave of this Exhibition, that it contains some very creditable busts by Fletcher, Steele, and Ritchie. “Bust of a Lady" (166,) by the latter, is one of the most lovely creations of this art that we have seen.

KING JAMES'S PSALMS-SIR PHILIP SYDNEY'S
PSALMS.

By William Tennant.*

NOTHING better marks the high estimation in which the poetry of King David is held by our countrymen, than the striking circumstance that not only our principal scholars, but our kings, our noblemen, our ladies of rank, have vied with each other in versifying, either in their own or in the Latin language, these simple and fervent lyrics. In no country in Europe, we believe, has there been a similar emulation. Buchanan, the most popular Latin writer of his day, gave the first general impulse; his pupil James, inheriting, from his poetical ancestors, a talent for versification, and having received from his learned preceptor excitement and encouragement towards its exercise, set himself, at an early age, to accomplish in his native language what Buchanan had done in a foreign.† His learning had enabled him to perceive the deviations in sense, and the immetrical rudenesses, of the version then At the General Asemployed in our Scottish church. sembly held at Burntisland in 1601, he, to the no little astonishment and joy of all the learned divines there present, stood up and recited from memory long passages from the Psalter, explaining, at the same time, by his critheir deviation from the meaning of the prose text. His tical animadversions, their unpoetical inaccuracies, and

This paper concludes the series of articles on the same subject which have already appeared in the Literary Journal, from the pen of Mr Tennant. They have all attracted much attention, though certainly not more than the ability with which they are writ en de serves. They have been collected in a separate pamphlet, which is published this day, and will no doubt be considered highly interesting both by the laity and clergy.-ED. LIT. JOUR.

This version of the Psalms in the Scottish dialect was never published. It still exists, written in his Majesty's own handwriting, and preserved in the British Museum. It has no resemblance, it is sad, to James's English version.

cheme of emendation was necessarily dropt for some ime; but after he was securely seated on the throne of Elizabeth, amid the splendours and fatigues of English oyalty, his mind recurred, as to a delightful pastime, to he favourite scheme of his youth, the revising of the Psalms. “An everlasting honour to the muses!" said the Bishop of Lincoln, his eulogist; "the greatest potentate in all the earth stooping to a verse, being the usual recreation of King David, as it was also of our English Solomon." His Majesty, whether from state perplexities, or infirmity of health, proceeded no farther than to the 31st Psalm. The completion of the work was committed to Sir William Alexander of Menstrie, afterwards Earl of Stirling, by whom it was published in 1631. Charles wished that the book should go under the shelter of his father's name, as King James's Psalms; but the people, with whom they were unpopular, styled them, from the name of their principal contributor, Menstrie's Psalms. A new and corrected edition of it appeared in 1636, which is the subject of the following few critical

remarks.

The thirty-one psalms composed by the royal paraphrast are not of a style in any very observable degree discrepant from the rest, so as to betray another hand. If they exhibit any difference at all, that difference is favourable to them, as perhaps they possess more simplicity. They are certainly creditable to his Majesty's poetical talent; the sense is given correctly, though, at times, in phrases too lax and exuberant; the grammar, with but one exception, is correct; the rhymes all irreproachable; and they have no double rhymes, as in our version. Throughout the whole book, indeed, there occur but a few false or double rhymes. There are many passages in this version executed with skill, force, and simplicity, which the compilers of that psalmody which we at present use, notwithstanding the prejudices then current against every thing proceeding from the court, did well in adopting; and there are yet lurking in it several passages, preferable to the corresponding parts of our own, that happen to be defective, which our modern revisers would do well, even at this late hour, to adopt. As a whole, and considering the purpose for which it was designed, its employment in public worship, and its being a manual of devotional family exercise for all ranks, the lower in particular, it is certainly too florid, pompous, and rhetorical. If our present version errs on the side of harsh, crabbed, too bare and mean phraseology, in the desire of being quite intelligible | and reaching the Hebrew simplicity; the royal version errs precisely in a contrary direction, in being too full and digressive, too diffusive and splendid in its fillings-up, too learned and sesquipedalian in its language, for ordinary people. There are in it, for instance, such words as circumvented, empoysoned, engendereth, embassage, embosom'd, Exhilarate, prostituted, embroider, &c.; such phrases as quiltless husbandry, burd'nous fatness, engross the tumbling ulf, caterpillars vermin vile, roaring waters mirrours of is might, roof-dyed tongues, artificial mouths, &c.; which

For example, instead of our 1st verse of Psalm xliii.
"Judge me, O God, and plead my cause
Against th' ungodly nation;
From the unjust and crafty man,
O be thou my salvation."

The King's edition has, much better

"Judge me, O God; my cause against
Th' ungodly nation plead;
From the deceitful and unjust
Me still in safety lead."

Again, in Psalm lxxi. 9, our version has-
"O do not cast me off, when as
Old age doth overtake me;
And when my strength decayed is,
Then do not thou forsake me."

The King's edition has

"Cast me not off, when as old age
Hath made we weak to be;

And when my strength begins to fail,
Do not abandon me."

might have been unexceptionable in Menstrie's stately monarchic tragedies, but are quite out of place in a translation of the simple songs of King David. Similar objections were, with great resolution, and with an accurate discrimination of the beauties of the original, charged by Calderwood upon the edition of 1631; yet even to the second edition of 1636, in which the most obnoxious passages, commented upon and exposed by the Presbyterians, were expunged and corrected, the same charge of digressive infidelity, and flourishing expansion, may be with too much justice applied. So that our northern part of the island may consider itself indebted to the good taste and spirit of its clergymen, in resisting, along with other encroachments, the imposition of a psalter so unfaithfully excursive, and so little adapted to the understanding of their people. It produced one happy consequence-it excited the Presbyterians to prepare one for themselves; and the competition, so favourable in all cases for the production of excellence, made them avoid with caution the errors which they charged upon the Episcopalian paraphrase. They adhered most rigidly and Calvinistically, even with the sacrifice sometimes of both grammar and metre, to the unembellished original, and produced, in | 1650, the metaphrase which is yet sung in our churches.

Shortly after Buchanan had published his Latin version, Sir Philip Sydney, the accomplished warrior, gentleman, and scholar, had engaged in translating the Psalms "into diverse and sundry kinds of metre, more rare and excellent, for the method and variety, than had ever yet been done in English." What was left of this work unfinished by himself, was completed by his accomplished sister, the Countess of Pembroke. Such were then the domestic amusements of our kings and our nobility! This work lay long dormant in manuscript, known only to a few antiquarians; at last it was printed in the year 1823, at the instigation of James Boswell, Esq.

It is manifest, from their multiform metres and diversities of diction, that these Psalms were compiled by the noble author and authoress, not in the view of being employed in public worship, but merely as themes of poetical exercitation and amusement in composition. For they profess not to adhere to the simplicity of the original, but, making the Psalmist's thoughts the groundwork or texts, as it were, for poetical enlargements, they spread abroad into the richest and most ample imagery. Sir Philip had evidently Buchanan's redundant paraphrase in his eye for emulation; he copies him in his language, (by nearly translating him ;) in his thoughts, in the ambitious variety of his metres. His language is like Buchanan's, branchy and diffuse; but he has more force, more poetical tension and vivacity, mixed with that quaintness, and, at times, stiffness and rudeness of expression, which we find in Sternhold, and in the earlier writers of Elizabeth's time; his thoughts are spangled not only with the superfluous ornaments of Buchanan, but with many more plentiful conceits, derived from the Italian school, of which he was an admirer; his metres are of every span and compass, exhibiting, sometimes mixed, sometimes separate, every fanciful and wayward variation, from ottava rima, English hexameters and saphics, down to trochaics of three and five syllables. Of all the paraphrastical translations of the Psalms, Latin or English, Sir Philip has the finest poetry superinduced upon the original. He is the greatest poet of all the versifiers. As an example and proof of this his superiority, we may merely refer to his version of the civth Psalm, one of the most beautiful poems of King David, on which all the versifiers, Buchanan and Johnstone in particular, have exerted their strength to the utmost, making it the test of their rival powers. Sir Philip's is, for splendid luxuriance, superior, I think, to them all. Of this book, the great fault is its inequality, and the innumerable concetti, quips, and cranks, in the expressions, from which Jewish simplicity is so abhorrent.

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REMARKS ON PHILOLOGY, AS ILLUSTRATIVE OF
NATIONAL CHARACTER.

"There is room for a very interesting work, which should lay open the connexion between the languages and manners of nations."

GIBBON.

that some national characteristic is involved in its forma tion. Such is the case, for instance, with the Spanish word Hidalgo, designative of rank, which is an abbrevia tion, or a concentration (so to speak) of Hijo de algo, “Son of somebody"a derivation that speaks volumes as to the pompous superiority which views an individual of the lower classes as nobody. A nation entertaining such ideas can scarcely fail to be nothing itself, after the days of chivalric warfare and golden enterprise are over.

A third axiom may, perhaps, be admissible-namely, that, wherever an abrupt and remarkable: vielation analogy is discernible in any language, this violation is referable to some national characteristic. Thus, it is well THE opinion which I have extracted from so compe-known that there is, in French, a copious class of verbal tent an authority, as the n motto to the following imper- nouns,parleur, chanteur, danseur, &c. &c. accompanied fect illustrations of its truth, occurs in a note on the with their feminine counterparts, all deduced uniformly, well-known derivation of exercitus ab exercitando. "Spas parleuse, chanteuse, danseuse, &c. &c. We find, bow. sensible," says this elegant historian, "were the Romans of the imperfection of valour, without skill and practice, that, in their language, the name of an army was borrowed from the word which signified exercise.'

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This department of philology appears to have been rather overlooked, although it is pregnant with the most attractive interest, from the graphic delineations with which it is so profusely studded, In the remarks which I now presume to offer regarding it, I do not aspire to any systematic discussion, but merely throw out such cursory sketches, as may induce an abler pen to enrich the pages of the Literary Journal on a subject not unworthy of them.

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ever, a remarkable transgression of this system in the case
of penseur and penseuse, words unknown to the French
language, which has, in fact, no word corresponding to
the English noun a thinker." "Penseuse!" says
Madame de Genlis, anxious to vindicate the rights of
her own sex at least, "why is this word not French?
It would be delightful to bring this word into fashion;
but I fear much it will never take! They think that
we have no need of either study or meditation, and that
If Madame de Geulis'
sentiment is sufficient for us,
explanation of this remarkable blank in the language be
admitted (and what better authority could we have?)
as to the feminine noun, are we to attribute the non-
existence of penseur to the politeness of the gentlemen,
who might not wish to make the exclusion of the
ladies from the class of thinkers so marked, as the use
of the masculine noun would do? Or may we trace the
cause to the light vivacity of French conversation? An-
other striking violation of analogy occurs in the aspira-
tion of héros, in defiance of the principle by which the
same initial letter is made quiescent in French words of
Greek or Latin origin,-a circumstance the more re-
markable, since the feminine héroine obeys the analogy.
I am tempted to view this phenomenon as deducible from
the passionate love of military glory which has ever dis
tinguished the French, and has led them in all ages to
an enthusiastic admiration-I had almost said deification

ear,

the

There is one axiom, at least, which may be laid down with confidence, as a clew to guide through the lexicographical labyrinth; namely, that whatever object, qualis ty, action, or condition, is not NATIONAL-in the impressive meaning of that adjective is generally expressed by u circumlocution. I say generally, for exceptions are undoubtedly met with to this principle; but every dunce is aware that exceptio probat regulam. Thus, it is well known that our Gallic neighbours have never, till lately, practised pugilism à l'Anglaise, but have been contented, in the absence of deadlier processes, to slap and wrestle; and, in accordance with our axiom, we find that the French substitute for the brief and truly British verb to box, consists in the clumsy and unfancyful circumlocution-donner des coups de poing. If it be true that boxer of their heroes. Could a French ear tolerate that idenhas been honoured by admission into the French catalogue | tity of sound, which, were the analogy in this particular of verbs, this circumstance still more vividly 'illustrates instance observed, would take place between the strangely our axiom. May not, too, the sensitiveness of the French, opposite expressions, "Ce sont des héros," and "Ce sont on the score of honour, be the remote cause of that ver- des zéros," thus degrading, though but to the biage with which they similarly express-in lieu of our heroes of La Grande Nation to CIPHERS! expressive "kick"-any aggression on honour's native Should these hasty and desultory notices be deemed seat? Again, since ridentem dicere verum quid petat?-worthy of a place in the Journal, I shall resume the subis it not a singular coincidence that the French-who are ject, in the hope of presenting some additional axioms and a restless, volatile race, to whom the task of standing still illustrations of greater interest. is intolerable, and who love to diversify the vertical position by every variety of graceful curvature should have no other approximation to the idea of standing, that the periphrastic expression se tenir debout, which merely ins THE village of Oban has of late years become the sumdicates that the individual is on his feet, without at all mer resort of fashionable strangers, both from England limiting the movements of the rest of the body, in short, and the Lowlands of Scotland, and I know of few bathnot conveying that notion of steady verticality which is ing quarters that can at all compare with it, either in na almost inseparable from our sedate monosyllable STAND. tural or artificial beauty. It stretches in the form of a In fact, to express this notion of standing still-for which crescent across the head of a bay of the Atlantic ocean, the addition of still is not always requisite with us the and is sheltered from every storm by island and mainland French must employ a circumlocution of such a length as mountains. The principal line of houses would do no to demonstrate forcibly the national repugnance to that discredit to any city. The streets throughout are clea posture, se tenir debout sans bouger!-sok 162,58 *V and spacious full of smart shops of all descriptions Having thus illustrated axiom the first, it may be na Even a bookseller has had encouragement sufficient to t turally surmised, that the converse of this axiom is equally up in first-rate style. He has his circulating librarytrue. Since an anti-national idea is expanded into a cir- his newspapers,and, consequently, his lounge, where not cumlocution, it is worth enquiry whether a truly na- novices, but men of taste and erudition discuss, the merits tional idea may not present the opposite phenomenoir of a of your own, or Blackwood's, or the New Monthly Mag concentration of several words into one. Compounded | zine. Then there is the debating club of choice spirits, words undoubtedly occur in all languages, but a language so regulated that no dry subjects are introduced, if w may present us with so graphic a compound as to imply except the reckoning. Not being one of its members, I

A LETTER FROM OBAN.

LORMA

cannot describe a sederunt; but from what I know of Home who are, there can be little doubt that the object of he meeting, at least, is excellent. Then there is the Rowing Club, whose gigs are tossed on other waves than steam-boat can raise, and on wider waters than the Clyde-no reflection upon the able rowers of Glasgow, or their noble stream. Off they set in the evening, with ight hearts and heavy bread-baskets, on a stretch of six miles, round by the ruins of Dunstaffnage, the rapids of Connal, the ancient Berigonium, and back again to their own romantic bay. The streams and lakes about Oban abound in excellent trout, and are frequently visited by Salmon. I know not how others may feel, but to me it Is a delightful thought, that here the author of " The Isle of Palms" used, "rod in hand," to wander during the long summer days,

Vos coruli testes, et flumina nymphis.

The institution of schools over the Highlands has been most beneficially followed by the publication of "The Gaelic Messenger." No sooner does a new Number appear, than groups of people may be seen assembled under the cottage eves listening, while one reads its tales, and songs, and "legends wild." The ingenious editors are held in just estimation by all classes. They have acquired the difficult art of writing so as at once to please the most illiterate and the most learned. This ensures success. The lower orders are proud of a work which does not assume to itself the right of instructing them in something their superiors already know. They would then regard it as a task-book, instead of delighting in it as one of useful amusement.

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London, Monday, May 17th, 1830. SINCE my last dramatic details, little has occurred worth recording."Hofer, the Tell of the Tyrol," has succeeded, and is succeeding, perfectly à merveille; and a brace of Farces, one at each house, and on the same evening, received their coup de grace, and were put out of their misery very nearly at the same moment; even though the Drury-Lane drollery was by the redoubtable Theodore Hook, The season being now so very nearly at a close, it is extremely questionable if we are to be favoured with any more novelty, notwithstanding the announcement of a new three-act play.. Another new farce was also underlined at Drury-Lane, but Liston's secession has postponed it, sine die. Benefits being, very properly, out of the pale of criticism, I have, of course, little to say about them, since" I am nothing, if not critical." Miss Fanny Kemble is to have another, or rather she is to receive the profits of her last appearance this season, as a tribute of gratitude from the proprietors, as was formerly done in the case of Miss O'Neil, when she is to play Lady Townley in the Provok'd Husband," for the first time. Fawcett is to have his last benefit, and to take leave of the public on Thursday next; and Harley's night is fixed for Wednesday, for which occasion a rhyming friend of his has scribbled the following song, of which, I can positively assure you, there is not another copy extant. It is written to the very classical tune of “ Bow, wow, wow!" and its author has entitled it

METROPOLITAN METAMORPHOSES

Or, Municipal Mutations, modulated into a new madrigal,

to an old tune.

1

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St Dunstan's Giants, with their clubs, must now be soon laid low,

I'm not surprised they're going, though, since Clubs are all the go!

The roof is gone, the vane has fled, no tower now appears,

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And soon the Clock must follow, that's been going for some years!

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Range, range, range, &c.

A new museum now is built, more elegant and light, The old blind wall, too, 's quite condemn'd, though they've preserved its site;

And though for lack of cash to dig, still half the work is undone, d

The Redriff Tunnel is by far the greatest bore in London! Range, range, range, &c.

Yet 'midst these changes far and near, which all must plainly see,

I'd gladly hope that no one here can find a change in me;
For though my character I shift, yet when with you I
parley,
Believe me, that I ever am your faithful J. P. HARLEY.
Range, range, range, &c.

Such is the doggerel which passes current at a benefit; indeed, to this actor's credit be it written, I have known much worse compositions encored twice! My remaining Theatrical Memoranda are few and "brief as woman's love." My friend Charles Mathews has had a hoarseness, which deprived the public of one evening's amusement, on Friday last; but he re-appears to night, and every box is taken for many nights to come. Ducrow is drawing "golden opinions" from crowded audiences, and Mountebank Fire-king. Lablache has made a successful Sadler's Wells is rejoicing in Monsieur Chabert, the

debut, for Donzelli's benefit, at the King's Theatre; and Vauxhall Gardens are to re-open with indescribable and unimaginable improvements, in about a fortnight. Mademoiselle Josephine Bartolozzi is sojourning in the rules of the King's Bench, until her hard-hearted creditors consent to her release; and the Theatre Royal, DruryLane, with all the appurtenances thereunto belonging,' was on Saturday last let for the ensuing three seasons to Alexander Lee, the composer, for something like £9000

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Then every eye was lit with smiles, and every cheek did shine

Of all the hearts that bounded there, the saddest one was mine.

I saw thee, in the mazy dance, swim like a sunbeam by I saw thee press another's hand, and bless another's eye; Then, like a little child that dies, hope was for ever o'er, And my heart was like a drifting wreck, that cannot find a shore.

Oh, bitter, bitter is the smile, that once was all mine

own,

For ever bright to others now, and cold to me alone; And bitter are the looks of love, which I may never share,--

Though others sun them in their light, I only wither there.

And yet, methought thine eye was dim, methought thy cheek was pale,

Perchance one stolen look at me might make thy heart to fail;

Perchance that heart was beating then with busy thoughts of me--

The very flower upon thy breast was languishing like thee.

For, oh! there was a time when I was never from thy side,

And thou wouldst let me call thee then, my beautiful, my bride;

But hearts will change, and love grow cold, and truth become a dream,

And all that once seem'd constancy, alas! did only seem.

Hold on thy course! and breathe thy vows to others as to me ;--

If thou wert all that once thou wert, I'd ne'er return to thee;

The captive bird comes back no more when it has broke its chain,

And the heart that once hath fail'd in love, can never love again.

LITERARY CHIT-CHAT AND VARIETIES.

CHIT-CHAT FROM LONDON.-The members of the London Literary Fund dined together a few days ago, his Grace the Duke of Somerset in the chair, supported by Lord Milton, Messrs Shee, Hob. house, Sotheby, Lockhart, Lytton Bulwer, Croly, Cunningham, and other distinguished individuals. Upwards of £500 were subscribed in aid of the benevolent objects of the Institution, and it was stated, that in the course of the last year, fifty-six persons had obtained relief from the fund.-The London Society of the Sons of the Clergy held its annual festival last week, when subscriptions were received to the amount of £923.—“ Captains Ready and Maitland," says the Atlas, "have fought a duel at Calais, which ended amicably after a harmless exchange of two shots each." The first gentleman is not a captain, nor is his name Ready.-There has been a public meeting to petition Parliament against the renewal of the East India Company's monopoly, at which Mr Hobhouse presided. Mr Buckingham, and his friends Messrs Otway Cave, O'Connell, and Hunt, had it all their own way.-The new Hall for public meetings in the Strand is now open. The building cost about £30,000. The principal hall is capable of containing 3000 persons; there is a smaller room, which holds 600, and twenty-one offices and committeerooms. Having been built on the property of the Marquis of Exeter, it is to be called Exeter Hall.-An engraving of Thomas Moore, from a portrait by Newton, which is considered an excellent likeness, has just been published.-There are said to be open nightly in the parish of St James's no less than ten hells, exclusive of all the private playing clubs.-Dr Chalmers, who is at present in London, to give evidence before the Parliamentary Committee on the Poor Laws, preached on Sunday last to a very crowded audience at the National Scotch

Church.

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